Bible Strands
Matthew 8:2
Suddenly a leper came and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — A leper approaches Jesus immediately after He has descended from the mountain and been met by large crowds (8:1). He prostrates himself before Jesus and speaks.
The words — προσεκυνέω (prosekynéō), rendered "knelt" in the BSB, literally means to prostrate oneself in worship; it is the same verb used for divine worship throughout the NT. This is not a social bow or a beggar's gesture but a posture of reverence before God.
The thread — Mark 1:40 preserves the same scene with the identical petition. The posture recurs in Matthew 15:25 (the Canaanite woman) and in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:26), where the servant kneels before his master begging for patience.
Why it lands — The leper does not command; he frames his request as contingent on Jesus' will, acknowledging that healing depends on the one he addresses. It asks the reader to see that genuine petition before God is not a demand but a surrender of the outcome.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
Cross-references
- Mark 1:40 Then a leper came to Jesus, begging on his knees: “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
- Matthew 15:25 The woman came and knelt before Him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
- Matthew 18:26 Then the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Have patience with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’
- Luke 17:12 As He entered one of the villages, He was met by ten lepers. They stood at a distance
- Leviticus 13:44 the man is diseased; he is unclean. The priest must pronounce him unclean because of the infection on his head.
- Luke 5:12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell facedown and begged Him, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
- Acts 10:25 As Peter was about to enter, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet to worship him.
- Numbers 5:2 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.
- Matthew 28:17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted.
- Mark 9:22 “It often throws him into the fire or into the water, trying to kill him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”